“Well, I've been in the city for 30 years and I've never once regretted being a nasty, greedy, cold-hearted, avaricious money-grubber... er, Conservative!” - Monty Python's Flying Circus, Season 2, Episode 11, How Not To Be Seen

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

What does a Moderate Muslim look like

Frank N. Gaffney's latest article is pretty awful, in that it argues that while Obama may not be a Muslim, he clearly supports extremist Muslims like the Muslim Brotherhood.

A better explanation is that more Americans are taking note of the accumulating series of statements and actions by the President that display favoritism, or worse, towards Muslims.

. . .In instance after instance, Mr. Obama has seemingly bent over backwards to accommodate not just Muslim-Americans, but a deeply problematic organization - the Muslim Brotherhood (or Ikhwan) - that purports to represent their interests here.

Among the awful things Obama is doing?

He stated that America was a land of "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers." Putting Muslims before Jews in his little speech is a mark of disrespect towards Jews apparently. One might argue that we aren't that worried about convincing Jews they are equal citizens with the rest of us.

Obama also wants to allow Muslims Zakat, their form of tithing or religious giving, something. Gaffney, frankly isn't clear, although it seems he believes that this initiative would allow American Muslims to support terrorism more easily.

He supported a United Nations Resolution.

In September 2009, the Obama administration co-sponsored a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution eagerly sought by the Muslim Brotherhood and its friends. The resolution called on member nations to "prohibit and criminalize" speech that offends Islam and its followers. Such an accommodation would clearly violate the Constitution's First Amendment guarantees of freedom of expression.

Recalling also that States should encourage free, responsible and mutually respectfuldialogue,1. Reaffirms the rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular the right of everyone to hold opinions without interference, as well as the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of their choice, and the intrinsically linked rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, peaceful assembly and association and the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs;

Wait I guess that may not be it, except that later on it does talk about respecting all points of view, and a line about not letting the war on terror interrupt the free exchange of ideas. The document calls on all states to "To refrain from using counter-terrorism as a pretext to restrict the right to freedom of opinion and expression in ways that are contrary to their obligations under international law." Unless Gaffney got the date wrong, I really don't know what he is talking about.

Also Obama has argued that allowing AIG to continue underwriting shariah compliant insurance is a breach of the separation of Church and State; this is just silly. AIG sells a number of products and supports a number of different clienteles - to argue that they should simply shut down part of their business to please xenophobes is nonsensical.

Obama supported the "megamosque" near Ground Zero, by which I assume Gaffney means the community center with a mosque in it.

Subsequent efforts to distance himself from that stance, in the face of intense criticism from the public and politicians of both parties, has only put into even sharper focus his pandering to this community.

Hilarious. Obama's immediate abandonment of his support for the Cordoba Center shows how subservient he is to the Muslim Brotherhood, who must be very very easy to please.

Anyway going back to my initial question - how many Muslims of any type would want to see Shariah compliant insurance shut down? How many support the Cordoba Center? More to the point, how many are OK with being seen as second class citizens the way Gaffney seems to want them?